House of the Week: Make room for family

Most homeowners would be thrilled to have an extra bedroom to offer overnight guests. And a guest bathroom? Even better. Imagine having enough space and beds to accommodate the homeowners, their five grown children and their spouses as well as 14 grandchildren, and you'll have conjured up the property at 295 Blue Heron Lane on DeRuyter Lake, offered for $649,900.

When Bill and Beverly Egan bought the property 36 years ago, there was just a small waterfront cottage. Each night, Bill and Beverly climbed a ladder from the enclosed porch to a tiny attic bedroom and pulled the ladder up after them.

"Our friends thought we were crazy," Beverly said, "but we thought it was kind of cozy up there."

They added on to the cottage in 1984, then gutted it in 2007, making it more spacious and home-like.

As their family expanded with in-laws and grandchildren, the Egans tried to accommodate their brood each summer for family reunions. They set up tents, then upgraded to campers, but finally recognized that if they wanted everyone to stay they would need a guest house. They finished building the 1,850-square-foot, 4-bedroom, 1-bath guest house in 1997.

The property has many interesting features, but the most unique is arguably the Irish garden shed the Egans had built in 1995. Beverly found the blueprints in a coffee table book about sheds, and their contractor built the structure with locust logs set in cement. It has a brick floor, three paned windows, a skylight and a cedar-shake roof. The Egans use the shed to house two refrigerators and a freezer as well as their lawn furniture in the winter.

The main house has an enclosed porch with an open beam ceiling that overlooks the 125 feet of lake frontage. The walls and ceilings throughout the house are tongue-in-groove knotty pine, and most of the floors are wide-plank fir, adding to the home's Adirondack-style charm.

In the living room, the Egans had a corner desk with shelves and a corner hutch built in. They also commissioned craftsmen to trim a wide doorway to the foyer with two large, hollowed-out white cedar trees. One tree conceals pipes and electric wires and the other has a secret panel that holds the circuit breaker box. On the other side of the foyer there's a staircase with a hand-hewn banister and a chainsaw-carved acorn newel post.

The kitchen has an island with seating for four and a large walk-in pantry with its own sink and lots of storage.

The first-floor master bedroom has a large walk-in closet with built-in shelves, and there's another larger closet adjacent to the room. Nearby is a spacious full bath with beadboard wainscoting, ceramic tile floor and walk-in shower. The wide bead-board vanity has a granite countertop and two sinks, with a hand-crafted Adirondack-style framed mirror installed above.

On the second floor, there's a practically mirror-image second master bedroom and full bath as well as two other bedrooms. On the third floor, a bonus room with windows on three sides offers a spot to read or to steal away for a nap.

On the back of the main house is a 60-foot-long, stone-paved patio, edged by a stone retaining wall. A huge spruce tree offers shade and shelter to the clearing just beyond the patio where the family gathers late in the afternoon to enjoy refreshments and to fire up the grill.

The main house has propane heat and both houses have whole-house attic fans and septic tanks.

The guest house has zoned electric baseboard heat, a laundry room and an attached 45-foot by 18.5-foot garage with a workbench, built-in shelves and a ceiling fan. An attached cedar-enclosed outdoor shower and dressing area is popular with the whole family.

The lawn between the two houses offers lots of space for active kids and adults. "They go from playing baseball, football, basketball and lacrosse to jumping in the lake and riding bikes," Beverly said.

An open house is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. today. For more information about the property, contact Patti Nardella, of Hunt Real Estate ERA, at 436-0041.

If you have a nominee for House of the Week, e-mail Kathleen Poliquin at home@syracuse.com, tell her what is special about the house for sale and include a small digital photo or two. Please include a phone number, so she can call you. She's looking for houses in all price ranges.